Rapid shovelling device



- Aug. 4, 1953 F. CHIMANI RAPID SHOVELLING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 23, 1947 Aug. 4, 1953 Filed July 25, 1947 F. CHIMANI RAPID SHOVELLING DEVICE *2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Aug. 4, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE t RAPID snfifizlfifvc DEVICE Q i I Application July 23, 1947, Serial No. 762,959 In France July 23, 1946 mounted on wheels or on Caterpillar treads is much wider than the elevator wheel and the conveyor belt, the apparatus can be embedded into only a small depth of the material to be handled, because the elevator wheel can trace a relatively narrow path in this material.

The object of this invention is to eliminate the above inconvenience by constructing a conveyor machine in such a way that the elevator wheel will not be smaller than the machine itself and thereby making it possible for the wheel to dig a section which the machine can take up without any difficulty. This result is obtained without any notable increase in the width of the conveyor belt and the parts supporting it.

According to the present invention, this result is obtained by slanting the outer walls of the buckets so that in their emptying position, they are close to the axis of the wheel. The outer walls of the buckets, arranged in this way, bring the material handled towards the center of the elevator wheel, thus enabling it to be emptied onto a conveyor belt of conventional width or even smaller. For the same purpose, moreover, there may be placed at the side of each bucket and extending beyond the edge of the elevator wheel a collector device equipped with a coulter (similar to a plowshare). This coulter is inclined with respect to the edge of the elevator wheel at an angle opposite to the rotational direction of the wheel, thereby bringing the material engaged by this coulter within the reach of the following bucket.

Certain movable elevators of the bucket type are equipped with helical collectors which because of their greatly exposed position deteriorate and wear out rapidly. These helical collectors, used to bring within reach of the buckets the material handled which is too distant from the axis, may be considered as machines independent of the lifter and are the cause of many breakdowns andstoppages because of their arrangement and frailty. The present invention, contrarily, is outstandingly simple in design and very economical in construction.

The manufacturing cost of an elevator wheel can be reduced according to this invention, and an improvement can also be achieved regardin 3 Claims. ((137-190) the grasp on the mass of material to be handled if, when forming the slanted sides of the buckets which guide the emptying of the material onto the conveyor belt, a simple device is used which consists of folding inwards the sections of the side wallsof the wheel.

When using a lifting wheel of the conventional type, having twin sets'of buckets shifted from each other in succession, a better arrangement would consist of cutting off theinner side of the buckets before the biting edge of the preceding bucket. In that way, interconnection is established between the buckets of the two intervening sets which come into action at the moment of discharge, thus contributing to a more uniform loading of the conveyor belt.

One of the particular advantages of this machine is that, due to the action of the collectors, the 'wide buckets can be filled immediately past the low dead point (lowest position of the bucks ets). Only a slight forward motion of the apparatus in the mass being handled is sufiicient to ensure the filling of these buckets, hence less resistance during operation and reduced wear on the apparatus. The high efficiency of the machine is well evidenced by the low driving power required. It can be used equally well for levelling,

for making cuttings or digging ditches and for storing all sorts of materials in bulk.

The enclosed drawings, given by way of example, show a particular embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 1 is an elevational view showing part of a vertical section of the elevator wheel with conveyor belt attached.

Fig. 2 shows a cross section of the same.

The elevator wheel consists of a drum wedged on a shaft 0. which is set into rotation by any suitable means. The periphery of this drum carries two parallel sets of buckets, l, the buckets of one set being staggered with respect to those of the next set; these buckets are equipped with blades 2, which cut out some of the material being handled which is then picked up by the buckets. The outer walls 3 of the buckets are arranged obliquely with respect to the wheel axis as shown in Fig. 2, so as to convey the load towards the center of the conveyor belt 4 at the moment of discharge. The simple arrangement makes it possible without widening the conveyor belt to enlarge substantially and without difiiculty the biting edge of the buckets until they attain the width of the apparatus and the track or supporting wheels.

In addition, adjusted to the side of each bucket and extending beyond the outer edges of the elevator wheel, there is a collector 5, the coulter 5a of which is constructed like a plowshare. This coulter, placed at an angle to the outer edges of the wheel, brings the material grasped by the collector into the path of the wheel and permits the following buckets to raise it.

In this way, material or products relatively distant from the center of the machine on both sides can be picked up by the wheel and emptied in the simplest manner on the conveyor belt.

shape of the buckets and by their component parts. In order to obtain a uniform loading of the conveyor belt, the intermediate partition 6 between two adjacent but shifted buckets is cut at 5a, at a suitable distance from the output edge. Thus, the material discharged can enter the adjacent bucket and a portion of it is deposited on the belt, immediately after said bucket has been loaded.

For a clearer understanding of the drawing, only two collectors are shown.

The device described in the above specification is given by way of example and it is understood that the constructional details as well as the forms, dimensions and materials used therein may vary without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. In a shovelling machine, an elevator wheel for cooperation with a conveyor belt, comprising two staggered parallel adjacent sets of laterally closed buckets, the buckets including each an outer lateral wall sloping inwardly at an oblique angle toward each other and converging forwardly in the direction of rotation toward the conveyor belt to constrain the material removed through the outer operative periphery to move towards the inner half of the breadth of the Wheel at the inner periphery of the buckets, and a collector member substantially trapezoidal in shape with the narrow edge facing forward and rigid with each bucket and projecting beyond the outer operative end of each bucket, laterally of the wheel and adapted to direct the material to be shovelled in the path of the next succeeding bucket.

2. In a shovelling machine, an elevator wheel for cooperation with a conveyor belt, comprising two staggered parallel adjacent sets of laterally closed buckets, the buckets including each an outer lateral wall sloping inwardly at an oblique angle toward each other and converging forwardly in the direction of rotation toward the conveyor belt to constrain the material removed through the outer operative periphery to move towards the inner half of the breadth of the wheel at the inner periphery of the buckets, the outer The shape of the load deposited upon the con- I lateral wall being formed for each set by a comveyor belt may be determined by the size and mon-stamped plate defining the side wall of the wheel.

-3. In a shovelling machine, an elevator wheel adapted to cooperate with a conveyor belt, said wheel comprising a rotary drum, a pair of staggered parallel adjacent sets of buckets carried on the periphery of the drum, the buckets of one set having outer walls arranged obliquely with respect to the axis of the wheel towards the conveyor belt, and the buckets of the other set also having outer walls arranged obliquely with respect tothe axis of the wheel towards the conveyorbelt, whereby the oblique walls of the buckets of both sets converge towards each other and towards the conveyor belt to urge the material removed by the wheel towards the conveyor belt and center it thereon upon a surface of less extent than that of the wheel.

F'REDE'RIC CI-IIMANI.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 114, Boas May 2, 1871 1,482,904 Moore Feb. 5, 1924 1,764,084 Nelson June 17, 1930 1,858,327 Hays May 17, 1932 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 7,246 Netherlands July 15, 1922 464,796 France Mar. 30, 1914 589,504 Germany Nov. 23, 1933 820,054 France July 19, 1937 

